There are, as “everyone” knows, ten commandments. Some of us even remember them, or some of them. Don’t kill. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. They are pretty clear. We try to figure out the edges, of course (“I’m just borrowing it. I was planning to pay it back”) but we have a sense of what […]

I just realized something. Lazarus never says anything. I mean, Martha and Mary both have speaking roles. They both talk with Jesus, Martha several times. But Lazarus? Not a word. The more I think about it, he never does much of anything, either. First he dies. Then, when Jesus tells him to come out of […]

Jesus welcomed Mary’s perfume. She poured it on his feet. He defended her action to Judas as being part of the burial process, a part of the process that Jesus knew wouldn’t happen. And then he said, “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” I wonder if […]

Friday ended with a question: “What would make her [Mary, Martha’s sister] so grateful that she would give it all to Jesus? What do you think?” You didn’t answer. I don’t blame you. Any answer would be speculation. One friend of mine suggests that she may have been a prostitute. Catholic tradition for centuries made […]

I’m sitting on the deck, sipping coffee. The lake’s not as smooth as it has been. The crows, conversing between trees, are distracting me from the conversations I’m wishing I could have with a couple empty chairs on the deck. Mary and Judas sit in empty chairs, looking past me, not meeting my gaze. I […]